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I got to play with fancy glass last night

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
The 50mm F1.8 has arrived. It's fun. It's touchy on the focusing...even for being a "cheap" piece of glass, it feels a lot more solid than a lot of stuff made today.
"Touchy" meaning like it's an old school lens or like there's something wrong w/ it?


Tip:
When shooting faces the wider apertures, like f/4 or wider, concentrate on focusing on the eyes of a subject, not the whole face. The thin slice of focus at say, f/1.8 will be only millimeters deep - the difference between focusing sharp on the eyes or on the end of the nose.

Eyes most often make the pic, imho.
 

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
this is a handy reference for figuring out DoF

www.dofmaster.com/

the eyes have it.

which is why i would love it if the next gen 5D had cross-point AF sensors at the intersection of the thirds rule, in the viewfinder. you know, instead of just in center. and beware of focus/lock/recompose when shooting w/ large apertures.
 

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
well i don't hang out @ nikonians or nikoncafe, so i'm sure the fora are filled w/ creamed jeans, but on the (admittedly) partisan POTN board, a fair number have proclaimed that aggressive noise control is applied at the expense of fine detail.

it's probably a moot point for a lot of shooters, and one can stage the fact hat the D3 has the highest native ISO of any camera. kinda weird that ISO 200 is the lowest native, though.
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
well i don't hang out @ nikonians or nikoncafe, so i'm sure the fora are filled w/ creamed jeans, but on the (admittedly) partisan POTN board, a fair number have proclaimed that aggressive noise control is applied at the expense of fine detail.

it's probably a moot point for a lot of shooters, and one can stage the fact hat the D3 has the highest native ISO of any camera. kinda weird that ISO 200 is the lowest native, though.
I hate to have to point out that "Aggressive noise control!" and "I never had film that went to ISO xxxx!" were the two battle cries of the D200 brigade.

It's like we're in this weird parallel universe now...
 

highrevs

Monkey
Oct 13, 2005
827
0
NC
well all i can hope for is the trickle down effect...i'm not gonna layout 4K or more for a camera...
I lol the first time i saw you reference the "aggressive noise control" a while back, but entertaining comments aside, I am hoping for a trickle down effect also. From what i have seen the high ISO performance of the D3 is pretty incredible. No matter which brand you decide to defend to the end the future of digital capture will only get better for both user groups.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
maybe full-frame swings the balance.
That it does...though I'd hope a new release would drive used/new prices down around D200 prices.

By "touchy", I mean manual focus 1.8 glass...old glass. Older than me glass.

Is it sad that I think it's super cool I'm using a piece of equipment older than I am? Oh, my generation and its disposable garbage...
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Vary touchy! Yep...a few mms off at wide open and you're focked. Focusing in low light is tough with the lens...a couple shots.


What's the crap in the lower right corner? Some sort of reflection off the sensor?


Mostly accidental. Had the lens closed way too far down, but I liked the building illumination over the underexposed foreground. And the sky.

Anyway...how do the geeks feel about the FleaBay scam sellers? There are some dirt cheap 40D bodies/kits there, and some claim to be valid US models with valid US warranties. Of course, there are the greymarket sellers, but they're usually easy to spot "One year USA store warranty".
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
i have my d40 for sale.
No wonder you can't write. Clearly, you can't read.

There has been an entire thread about the type of camera blue is looking for, the types he's considering, and his last post wasn't about the D40 at all, nor would a D40 be even remotely useful to him since he has one...
 

highrevs

Monkey
Oct 13, 2005
827
0
NC
I added another toy to the arsenal this evening... I picked up a little compact P&S to throw in the pack for trail rides. I did a little research last night and found one that was reasonably priced and allows enough control to keep me interested. And dare I say…it’s a canon. :busted: I checked out a couple of Panasonics/Lumix, Fujifilms and Nikons, but the Canon A570 IS was hard to beat in the price range I was looking at.

Unfortunately I have not had a chance to really play with it. It was dark when I got home from Ritz Camera and we all know canon just falls short in flash photography applications. :rolleyes: :biggrin:
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
personally i would stay clear of ebay...if you want to go used, you are far better off going through POTN or Fred Miranda's sell forums.
They're new. I'm likely not going to go with a used body, unless I get a screaming deal on a 5D or 1dsMkIII (but then glass=$$$).

highrevs said:
I added another toy to the arsenal this evening... I picked up a little compact P&S to throw in the pack for trail rides. I did a little research last night and found one that was reasonably priced and allows enough control to keep me interested. And dare I say…it’s a canon. I checked out a couple of Panasonics/Lumix, Fujifilms and Nikons, but the Canon A570 IS was hard to beat in the price range I was looking at.
The Canon 5/6/7 Powershots are all great. I still have my A620 (it and an A610 took all of the shots on the site in my sig). Image quality for little point and shoots is awesome, as well as full manual controls. I haven't used it in some time, though...USB port decided to take a dump, so I need a card reader to pull photos from it. There is/was a firmware hack that allowed some of the 5 and 6 series to shoot in .RAW that I used. I don't have the link offhand, but I think someone on this forum supplied it.

pinkshirtphotos said:
i have my d40 for sale.
Don't you have ****ty pictures of ****ty snowboarders riding a ****ty "mountain" to take?
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
I don't have as much cash as originally planned, but I've managed to secure a screaming deal on the following stuff:

-20D body
-BG-E2 grip+2 batteries
-Canon cable remote
-420EX Speedlite
-Tamron 28-70mm f/2.8 (zupah good reviews)
-Canon 50mm f/1.8
-Canon 70-300 f/4-f/5.6 USM III

Lacking a bag and tripod. I eventually plan to buy a decent wide lens, and a fast long zoom Canon L lens. Probably a 70-200 f/2.8 or something like that.

Anyway, suggestions on bags and tripods? I'm looking at tripods in the $125 range, and bags as cheap as possible...I'd be a big fan of a backpack that can securely hold everything. There are some Manfrotto/Boge setups that run $125, but they have the swivel ball head, when I need a head with handles. The current tripod is ill-suited to heavy duty SLR duties. It almost died with the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 hanging off the front of it...
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
A head with handles, as in the long, awkward handles of a video tripod?

Why would you want that? They're designed to make panning easy on a video camera. A ball head unlocks movement on every axis so you can easily frame your picture and lock it again (or, with the expensive ball heads, you just frame your picture and let go because of the tension control).
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Like one of these:


When I shoot with a tripod, I'm usually shooting long exposures. I like to have total and complete control over where the lens is looking, and I want to be able to adjust it to the mm on each axis. A ball head is a little too sloppy for my tastes.

Cullmann tripes any good?